Rangel: Intraparty challenges promise interesting primaries

In the May 29 primaries, 41 of the 150 members of the Texas House of Representatives face challengers from their own party. And a few — such as Plainview Republican Jim Landtroop — face as many as three, a rare occurrence.

But it is not just Landtroop and his 40 House colleagues who have to work extra hard if they are to be re-elected. Eighteen of the 32 members in the Texas congressional delegation also drew intraparty opponents, including Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock being challenged by former Lubbock County Republican Party chairman Chris Winn.

Even seven of the 31 state senators, who usually get a free pass when they are up for re-election every four years, drew intraparty challengers, including Republicans Robert Duncan of Lubbock and Kel Seliger of Amarillo.

Although the number of intraparty challengers appears to be record high, it looks like the discontent with incumbents has been brewing for years, especially with the congressional delegation. This means the “throw out the bums!” cry is getting louder and louder.

For instance, in the 2008 Democratic and Republican primaries 27 Texas House incumbents, three state senators and four members of the congressional delegation, drew opponents. And though by 2010 the number of Legislature incumbents facing primary opponents remained almost the same, it was a different story in the congressional delegation. Fourteen drew intraparty opponents, 10 more than in the previous election.

Then and now, the overwhelming majority of those incumbents are Republicans. And though this is not surprising because Texas is one of the reddest states, in proportion to their numbers, far more Republicans than Democrats draw opposition from their own ranks. For instance, 15 of the 23 Republican congressmen, including Mac Thornberry of Clarendon, too, face primary rivals this year.

Based on conversations with leading Republicans, it is safe to conclude two things about those GOP challengers.

Quite a few are tea party activists who consider the incumbents insufficiently conservative.

This explains why Texas House Speaker Joe Straus and some members of his inner circle, like State Affairs Committee chairman Byron Cook and Appropriations chairman Jim Pitts, drew opponents, too.

On the flip side, party stalwarts,and even some leaders are deeply frustrated with the political polarization in Washington and Austin.

Some West Texas Republicans say this is why Winn decided to take on Neugebauer.

“When Chris went to Washington he didn’t like what he saw and he saw Randy as part of the problem,” said a well-known Lubbock Republican.

As this newspaper has reported, during the historic health care debate of two years ago, Neugebauer received national attention, a good deal of it negative, for shouting “baby killer” to a colleague from Michigan. Moreover, poll after poll shows the overwhelming majority of Americans give Congress a low approval rate.

Although most congressional and Texas Legislature incumbents are expected to be re-elected, if there is anything good about the high number of contested primaries is it might motivate the electorate, especially in heavy Republicans areas like the Panhandle/South Plains region where voter turnout is usually low.

Until two years ago, the only incumbent from the region who regularly drew an intraparty challenger was then-Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock. Now Neugebauer, Thornberry, Duncan, Seliger, Landtroop, as well as Lubbock’s Rep. Charles Perry, have Republican opponents.

Moreover, for the rank and file in both major parties, the contested primaries make the incumbents, even in so-called “safe districts,” more accountable. And here is something else. If eight or more Texas House incumbents are defeated in the primaries, the number of freshmen in the 2013 session would be higher than the 39 in the current two-year cycle.

Regardless of what happens on May 29, this is a safe bet now: In West Texas and across the state there’ll be interesting primaries to watch, a sharp contrast to previous elections.